June 8, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, Brett McGurk's e-mails finally makes the mainstream news, Brett McGurk's idiotic remarks to the Senate Committee still don't (today we explores his lies to the Committee on Sahwa), Nouri al-Maliki ensures that the political crisis continues in Iraq, the US military finds an increase in the number of suicides, and more....AFP reports a Baghdad attack on Col Mohammed Yunis' car left him dead and his wife and their two children injured, Assad Mohammed was shot dead ("official in the office of deputy parliament speaker Qusay al-Sohail), 1 Iraqi soldier was shot dead in Kirkuk and a Baladruz roadside bombing claimed 1 life and left two people injured. Alsumaria reports that the owner of a power generator center (electrical plant?) in Diwaniyah was approached last night by angry citizens with one throwing an unknown sharp object which killed him. The citizens were upset by the continued lack of electricity...

Iraq snapshot - June 8, 2012

The Common Ills

Friday, June 8, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, Brett McGurk's e-mails finally makes the mainstream news, Brett McGurk's idiotic remarks to the Senate Committee still don't (today we explores his lies to the Committee on Sahwa), Nouri al-Maliki ensures that the political crisis continues in Iraq, the US military finds an increase in the number of suicides, and more.

Gina Chon's not the story here. She may be at other sites and that's their business. CJR should certainly be exploring the issue of sleeping with your source. Here our focus is on McGurk except to point out that any woman who has an affair with a married man who then leaves his wife should be very wary of him being back in the same situation when he first cheated with her. In other words, history tends to repeat.

What changed? Why the sudden interest from the press in covering the e-mails? Because reporters on the State Dept beat pressed State Dept spokesperson Victoria Nuland about the e-mails.

QUESTION: On another subject, this nomination of Brett McGurk, is it in trouble? And can you confirm that the State Department is investigating allegations of these emails between him and Ms. Chon of The Wall Street Journal?

MS. NULAND: Well, first of all, on the subject of the emails, they're out there for everybody to see. I'm not going to get into emails between Mr. McGurk and the woman who subsequently became his wife. With regard to Mr. McGurk's nomination, I think you know that he spent the better part of the last decade serving our country in and out of Iraq, working for a Republican administration, a Democratic administration. He is, in our view, uniquely qualified to serve as our ambassador, and we urge the Senate to act quickly on his nomination.

QUESTION: So obviously you're sticking with him. But can you confirm that -- because there are reports -- that the State Department actually has looked into these alleged emails, or the allegations that these might have compromised security or sensitive information?

MS. NULAND: I don't have anything to say on the emails.

QUESTION: Can I just follow up on that?

MS. NULAND: Yeah.

QUESTION: Because, I mean, there are rules for Foreign Service officers to not get into situations where you're blackmailed. There's sort of a sense that you have to act morally. There are these regulations in your guidebooks. And some people have lost security clearances over having extramarital affairs. So I wonder why it is that this doesn't seem to be -- factor at all into your decision in keeping this -- keeping his nomination out there.

MS. NULAND: Again, we consider him uniquely qualified. All of the necessary things were done before his nomination, and we urge the Senate to confirm him. Jill.

QUESTION: Can you confirm that those emails actually came from the State Department system, in -- within the State Department system?

MS. NULAND: I'm not going to speak about the emails. They're out there for you to look at. They're obviously very much available for anybody to read.

QUESTION: Aren't you investigating how they were leaked? They're from your own system.

MS. NULAND: I'm not going to get into our internal issues here.

QUESTION: Well, why not? You talk about WikiLeaks all the time. Those were essentially emails.

MS. NULAND: Goes to your usual point, Matt, that we speak about --

QUESTION: What, the lack of consistency?

MS. NULAND: Yes. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Yeah. Oh, okay, great. When -- you said you did -- all the necessary things were done before his nomination. What are those necessary things? Was that like a security clearance and vetting and --

MS. NULAND: All that stuff.

QUESTION: Well, I mean -- no, I -- what are they? I don't know. What has to be done, not just in his case but in any nominee's case?

MS. NULAND: His nomination was managed in the exact -- with the exact same processes that we use for everyone.

QUESTION: Well, okay. What does that mean? I mean, does that mean that there's an FBI check or --

MS. NULAND: I'm going to refer you to the White House for how they do this.

QUESTION: All right. And then --

QUESTION: Just one more on that.

MS. NULAND: Yeah.

QUESTION: If you do -- if you did do that, are you sharing this with members of Congress who have severe problems with his nomination?

MS. NULAND: We always work with Congress on our nominees, and we're continuing to do that in this case.

QUESTION: Can you confirm that there has been at least one meeting with -- on the specific issues, not on the specific issues that were about the emails, with people on the Hill?

MS. NULAND: I'm not going to comment on the specifics of our conversation with Congress, but in all these nomination procedures, we work with the Hill on any --

QUESTION: Right.

MS. NULAND: -- issues that they have as our --

QUESTION: But are you --

MS. NULAND: -- nominees are being reviewed.

QUESTION: But are you aware that this -- that people from the State Department have gone to the Hill and/or have spoken to members of the committee who have raised concerns about these specific issues. And by these specific issues, I don't mean the more specific substantive issues that senator -- people like Senator McCain have raised. I'm talking specifically about the emails. Do you know if they have been -- if this issue has been discussed with people on the Hill?

MS. NULAND: Beyond saying that we continue to work with appropriate members and staff on his nomination in support of it, as we do with all nominees, I'm not going to get into details.

"Matt" above is Matthew Lee with the Associated Press. He reports on it here and avoids mentioning Gina Chon by name. While I have stated that she is not the issue, I am not going to render her invisible. I have no desire to include the name of the wife cheated on but while I'm not going to examine Gina Chon's motives or explore ethical issues on her end or quote her in the e-mails, I'm not going to vanish her. When you enter into a sexual relationship with a high ranking government employee, especially a married one, you're risking exposure. As a member of the press, that's something Gina Chon understood before she ever went to Iraq. I mention Lee vanishing her because that's another reason the story's not being covered.

During the Iran-Contra hearings -- a detail Robert Parry and others always ignore -- a journalist was outed (TV journalist) for knowing about what took place and covering it up. It was in the news cycle for about 2 to 3 hours. Then the press did what it does best: Protect its own. I've mentioned the journalists' name before and will again. But we'll not go there today because I'll hear, "Do you always have to beat up on ___?" from friends at ____'s network.

But a big reason that the e-mails weren't covered was due to the fact that Gina Chon is a member of the press. As a result, I will be rethinking my policy here for next week. We're already in a gray area because I'm not big on sex scandals. (And my family has had their own aired out in the press.) But we didn't cover this as "Cheating husband!" I wasn't even aware Brett McGurk was married when I learned what the Senate Committee was hearing. We covered this as: You want to be a surpervisor but you used government time and government equipment to go in search of a bootie call, you then concealed the affair from your supervisor because it was a serious conflict and now you're going to supervise?

I'm glad that McGurk doesn't have a sexaul harassment lawsuit against him, but reading those e-mails -- which are only four years old -- I'm not real sure he's someone who understands work boundaries.

And with no supervisory experience, I do worry that the tone he will set will not be encouraging for women or for their safety. "Oh come on, boss," you can hear a male staffer telling McGurk, "I just sent her an e-mail about my blue balls. You know what that's like, e-mailing a woman about your blue balls. I wrote her about masturbating too because I saw your e-mails and realized that's how someone 'so f**king smooth' does it." Peter Van Buren notes today, "Readers of my book, We Meant Well, will remember an incident where an innocent romantic email from a male State Department contractor to a female soldier kicked off a major incident that ended up with the contractor being swiftly fired for misuse of the official email system for personal use. If McGurk is allowed to end up as ambassador, that would be only the latest in a long series of double standards of conduct at the State Department. "

This is not a minor issue and how sad, telling and pathetic that neither female senator on the Committee bothered to show for the hearing.

And into this already complicated environment, the White House wants to put a man who can't keep it in his pants? Married less than 2 years and he can't keep it in his pants? In a war zone and he can't keep it in his pants?

It's not a minor issue. Can an Iraqi woman meet with McGurk? And if she does -- remember social taboos are on the rise in Iraq since the US declared war and put thugs in charge -- will this result in it being assumed she too 'got down' with the 'playa'? You can not put a man with that reputation in Iraq without asking, "How will this effect Iraqi women?" The most obvious way is they won't be able to interact with him for fear of how any interaction would be interpreted. So no Iraqi woman can meet with him one-on-one to share concerns. That doesn't bother the State Dept?

Well why the hell not. Iraqi women were sold out under Bully Boy Bush and for all of his pretense otherwise, Barack Obama clearly doesn't give a damn about Iraqi women.

I would think how this effects over half of the Iraqi population would be of grave concern; however, we've yet to see a White House concerned about Iraqi women since the start of the illegal war.

Huffington Post does a lousy job of covering the story. We're focusing on issues here. Can he be successful in management when he has no experience and a record of lying to his superiors and breaking rules and regulations? We're not being Arianna Huffington in the 90s sniffing through Bill Clinton's briefs. Maybe that's the only way Arianna and her website know to cover a story? Sink into the filth? Or maybe it's just more of her: 'Write a bad blog post so we can say we covered it and we aren't really in the tank for Barack.' Chris McGreal (Guardian) covers the story seriously and raises real issues. I don't believe that McGurk passed on classified information but -- as Mike noted last night -- that is a serious concern around Congress currently for other reasons. My issue is that he's not qualified. That was the opinion before the e-mails. He doesn't have the exeprience needed, he doesn't speak Arabic, Iraqiya objects to him, Iraqi women will be left out of the discussions but now someone who just four years ago was breaking the State Dept guidelines is going to be put in charge of the largest US embassy project in the world?

Chris McGreal explains, "A Republican senator, James Inhofe, cancelled a meeting with McGurk in a sign that unease about the emails could raise problems. Any senator is able to put a hold on the nomination." Helene Cooper (New York Times) adds, "Mr. Inhofe has not yet put a hold on Mr. McGurk's nomination, an aide said" and quotes the aide, Jared Young, stating, "I don't think we'd say we've reached the decision point yet." Jared Young tells Aamer Madhani (USA Today), "Until those issues are cleared up, he will not meet with Mr. McGurk." In addition to the hiding of an affair, Josh Rogin (Foreign Policy) notes that McGurk "may have been videotaped while engaged in a sex act on the roof of Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace with a different woman." It's oral sex with him on the receiving end. And since March when Peter Van Buren published a blind item, everyone has whispered that the blind item about the blow job on top of the Republican Palace was one of Brett McGurk's many sexual adventures in the Green Zone. Paul Richter has a good report for the Los Angeles Times. Need a video report? As usual, you can count on Jake Tapper who is able to confirm -- unlike all the other outlets today -- that the e-mails are genuine. Click here for his video report. Near the end, Jake Tapper explains, "And, George, even McGurk's allies say now that with these e-mails out there, he will have to answer more questions about this on Capitol Hill."

(If you covered this before 5:00 pm EST on Thursday and I didn't mention you, it was not intentional. E-mail common_ills@yahoo.com and in Monday's snapshot we'll note you covered it before the American mainstream media covered it. And that's true always for left sites and center sites, but that applies to any right-winger as well. Drop an e-mail with a link so we can include you so you get your credit. And if you want some gossip, as I work in this link, Peter Van Buren is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the War for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, Let me note that some at the State Dept are stating that Peter is behind the leak. No, he wasn't. But there are many other stories that will be leaked out if the State Dept and the White House continue to target Peter. Their little witch hunt and demonization of Peter has offended several career employees.)

[Personal note. Since leaks are such a big deal, let me note I wasn't told by anyone about the e-mails. I was present in the outer office when it was being discussed in hushed tones. Anyone who knows me knows don't whisper around me. If people talk at a normal volume, I'm busy, I'm returning calls on my cell phones and I'm going through my planner. But you start whispering and I hear it. You cannot get far enough away if you're whispering. When you start whispering, you're right in my ear.]

In the snapshots, we've been covering the interesting parts of Brett McGurk's Wednesday testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee such as when he elected to school everyone on al Qaeda in Iraq -- and directly contradicted Congressional testimony provided by Leon Panetta (Secretary of Defense) and contradicted the public remarks of James Clapper (Director of National Intelligence). The Committee just ignored all the conflicts in his claims. Today we focus on Sahwa. Here's what the nominee had to say.

Brett McGurk: The Sons of Iraq is also something that we need to watch very closely. So far, about 70,000 have been incorporated into government positions. About 30,000 Sons of Iraq are still manning checkpoints. They are getting paid out of the current budget -- I've been told out of the current budget. They get paid about $300 a month which is slightly below the per capita GDP.

In his opening remarks, Petraues explained of the "Awakening" Council (aka "Sons of Iraq," et al) that it was a good thing "there are now over 91,000 Sons of Iraq -- Shia as well as Sunni -- under contract to help Coalition and Iraqi Forces protect their neighborhoods and secure infrastructure and roads. These volunteers have contributed significantly in various areas, and the savings in vehicles not lost because of reduced violence -- not to mention the priceless lives saved -- have far outweighed the cost of their monthly contracts." Again, the US must fork over their lunch money, apparently, to avoid being beat up.

How much lunch money is the US forking over? Members of the "Awakening" Council are paid, by the US, a minimum of $300 a month (US dollars). By Petraeus' figures that mean the US is paying $27,300,000 a month. $27 million a month is going to the "Awakening" Councils who, Petraeus brags, have led to "savings in vehicles not lost".

Now this was the week that Petreaus and Crocker went from House Committee to Senate Committee to House Committee . . . Offering their testimony.

And in one of the last smart things she may have done, Senator Barbara Boxer raised the issue of why is the US taxpayer footing the bill for Sahwa? She asked why Nouri wasn't paying the cost? This forced the administration to insist that they would explore that. Had Boxer not raised the issue, it never would have been raised. By the end of the week, it was stated that the US was going to ask that Nouri pick up the tab. This was at the height of Sahwa. Their number did not increase. In fact their numbers decreased because they've been repeatedly targeted with violence. In the year Petreaus testified, for example, 528 Sahwa died from attacks and another 828 were injured in attacks. Attacks haven't been their only problems. In January of this year, Dan Morse (Washington Post) reported:

The United States transferred full management of the force to the Iraqi government in 2009, with the understanding that 20 percent of the fighters would be given jobs in Iraq's police or military units and that the government would try to find the others civil service or private-sector jobs.

But the process has moved slowly. Sons of Iraq members say they are denied jobs because they are Sunni, even as the Iraqi government welcomes onetime Shiite insurgents into jobs. The government says that it is committed to hiring Sons of Iraq members but that education levels prevent some of them from getting security jobs.

After its inception in 2005 they received salaries of around 250 dollars monthly for manning checkpoints and patrolling their own areas. But those low revenues have vanished today with the withdrawal of the Americans. "The original plan was to gradually integrate our men into the Iraqi security forces but now we're all starting to realise that those were just fake promises," Abdullatif Majid Latif, commander of the militia in Samarra, explains at the militia headquarters in the city. "I have 2,000 men who have families to take care of in a desperate situation. All of them still remain loyal to Sheikh Khalid Fleieh but I wonder how long will this last," adds the military official. Abdullatif's men belong to the approximately 100,000 today lining up in the Sahwa militia. The first stage of an initially ambitious plan was to incorporate a quarter of them into the security forces. Today, things are not working as expected. Everyone wonders what will happen to thousands of broken armed men. Samarra Sahwa militiaman Abdulljabar Abdulrahim is categorical: "If I'm not paid in April I'll quit and look for something else, either in the construction or the cleaning sectors," he says, armed with an AK-47 rifle and dressed in sweatpants and slippers.

How do the above reports fit with the claims Brett McGurk made? They don't. As usual he spun pretty for his friend Nouri. He didn't, however, tell the truth to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. On the Clapper and Panetta issue, you could just write him off as dumb. But the problems of Sahwa finding employment and getting paid have been documented by the major newspapers since 2009. As of March of this year, nothing changed. But Brett McGurk wants to insist otherwise.

70,000 have not been given government jobs. That's a bold face lie. The best year on hiring was 2009. And about a tenth of that was hired in 2009. In 2010 and 2011 you see the drop-off in hiring. 2009 was the best year. McGurk's figures don't add up.

Maybe if the Senators hadn't been so quick to rush through the hearing -- those that bothered to show up -- we'd know for sure whether Brett McGurk was an idiot or a liar. But you don't give the testimony he did -- as we've now documented in three snapshots -- unless you're uninformed or lying.

When his lack of experience in administration and supervision is brought up, the White House insists to Senators that McGurk makes up for that with his vast knowledge of Iraq. He didn't display vast knowledge, he displayed highly limited knowledge.

He is not qualified and, if he was smart, he'd withdraw his nomination.

If the administration were smart, they'd learn to give a damn about Iraqi women. This is Barack third nomination for US Ambassador to Iraq. All three have been men. If we're supposedly modeling behavior for Iraq, we're not doing Iraqi women a bit of good. Stop kidding that these all male appointments (and all male under Bush as well) help Iraqi women.

The continued violence in Iraq helps no one but leaders who benefit from a terrorized population. AFP's Prashant Rao Tweeted today:

AFP reports a Baghdad attack on Col Mohammed Yunis' car left him dead and his wife and their two children injured, Assad Mohammed was shot dead ("official in the office of deputy parliament speaker Qusay al-Sohail), 1 Iraqi soldier was shot dead in Kirkuk and a Baladruz roadside bombing claimed 1 life and left two people injured. Alsumaria reports that the owner of a power generator center (electrical plant?) in Diwaniyah was approached last night by angry citizens with one throwing an unknown sharp object which killed him. The citizens were upset by the continued lack of electricity.

In Iraq, the political crisis continues. If you're having trouble keeping track of who's who, Suadad al-Salhy (Reuters) offers a look at the various political blocs.

Al Rafidayn reports that Ammar al-Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq gave a speech yesterday at the Cultural Forum insisting that while he has defended the government he has also criticized it. In his speech yesterday, Ammar declared that ISCI was not part of the problem but that they wanted to be part of the solution and to support everyone. That would be a change because all Ammar's supported so far this year was Nouri.

Nouri is facing a no-confidence vote in Iraq. His refusal to honor a signed contract between him and the political blocs has ticked off many. The Al Rafidayn article notes that Daw's Abdul Halim Zuhairi (Dawa is a political party -- Nouri's political party; State of Law is Nouri's political slate) is insisting that Moqtada al-Sadr is harming the nation and splitting the Shi'ite ranks.

Right there is your problem.

Moqtada al-Sadr is splitting Shi'ite ranks?

That's a sectarian way of looking at -- apparently the only way Dawa knows how.

You'd think the statements would be condemned. They won't be. But Alsumaria reports Nouri did make a speech today insisting that tolerance was needed. He's not punished anyone with Ministry of Interior for targeting and demonizing Iraqi youth suspected of being Emo (the Ministry of Interoir went into the schools trashing those children -- and the Interior has no minister because Nouri won't nominate anyone -- he can only control it when there is no minister).

Regardless of whether or not there's a no-confidence vote, what has happened is that Iraqi leaders have demonstrated they can go beyond sects and work together -- Moqtada, KRG President Massoud Barzani, Iraqiya's Ayad Allawi and others. They've presented a united front arguing that the Erbil Agreement needs to be followed as agreed to.

The Pentagon doesn't like to use the term "crisis," especially when discussing the suicide rate of service members. But the situation reached crisis level long ago. The latest news is even worse than before. Mark Thompson (Time magazine) explains:

New Pentagon data show U.S. troops are killing themselves at the rate of nearly one a day so far in 2012, 18% above 2011′s corresponding toll. "The continual rise in the suicide rate has frustrated all in the military," says Elspeth "Cam" Ritchie, a retired Army colonel and chief psychiatric adviser to the Army surgeon general. "The rise in the suicide rate continues despite numerous recommendations from the Army and DoD task forces."

Suicides among U.S. forces are on the rise this year. According to the Pentagon, military suicides now are averaging nearly one per day; 154 active-duty service members took their lives in the first 155 days of the year. That's an 18 percent increase over the same period last year.Suicide deaths also now are outpacing the number of U.S. combat troops killed in Afghanistan. Some research has pointed to multiple tours of duty and post-traumatic stress as contributing to the rise in suicides.

David Martin: Spc Carl McCoy survived two tours in Iraq only to take his own life and shatter the life of his wife Maggie.

Maggie McCoy: He shot himself. In the bathroom.

David Martin: Here in this house?

Maggie McCoy: Yes.

David Martin: That was 2008, when the Army did not have enough mental health counselors. McCoy had scheduled an appointment with a counselor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. But that morning --

Maggie McCoy: They called and cancelled.

David Martin: And they cancelled because?

Maggie McCoy: They didn't have anybody to see see him. That was the day before he killed himself.

Martin goes on to float the Pentagon's 'possible' reason for the increase: The economy.

Mollie (GetReligion.org) weighs in with, "Suicides don't just mean that chaplains must arrange and perform funeral services but also that they must deal with units that are devastated. He said that one of the things they work on is doing respectful funerals without glorifying the suicide victim since studies (and his personal experience) indicate that it can lead to copycat suicides or other problems. He mentioned another recent situation of overseeing a funeral for an atheist who had left explicit instructions about what could and could not be said at his service. Since what he wanted said and not said wasn't exactly something that many — or any, in this case — chaplains could get on board with, the chaplains at the base came up with a creative workaround that honored the dead soldier's wishes without compromising anyone else's religious views." AP has a video report which includes Major General Dana Pittard writing on a blog: "Be an adult, act like an adult, and deal with your real-life problems like the rest of us." No, that's not helpful or needed and it's actually damaging and keeps people from seeking the help that they neeed.

Robert Burns (AP) notes, "The numbers reflect a military burdened with wartime demands from Iraq and Afghanistan that have taken a greater toll than foreseen a decade ago. The military also is struggling with increased sexual assaults, alcohol abuse, domestic violence and other misbehaviour." David Martin was oblivious to that apparently.

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